SIN IS PLEASANT FOR A SEASON

Most everyone acknowledges that  Sin can be Fun. Sin can feel good. Sin can seem daring, doing something we know is wrong. Sin can feel adventurous, trying things we know are forbidden by God, our parents, our society, even our own self consciousness. 

The sad part about Sin is that it never measures up to its inherent promise.

Sin is always three steps short of satisfaction. In fact, the lack of satisfaction is part of what keeps a sinner returning to his old sin like a dog returning to his vomit. 

Proverbs 26:11 (KJV)
As a dog returneth to his vomit,
so a fool returneth to his folly.

Sin sets us up for failure: 1) short range, 2) long range, and 3) eternal failure.

  1. Sin fails us personally. Sin destroys our own personal relationship with ourselves. It kills our own true inner confidence and our God given moral guidance systems. It twists and perverts our naturally clear, morally pure, strong sense of right and wrong—which is meant to be our true inner confidence. (Sin can replace true confidence with a counterfeit, kind of shameful Braggadocious Spirit (a.k.a., arrogance—which is easy to see in others but often missed in ourselves). It is often produced by a competition based sense of false and often fatal self confidence.

    Sin corrupts our own true clarityour true inner virtue, our raw power of faith, hope, and love. Sin destroys our naturally steady and honest true moral courage and character. Sin poisons our true power to do the right thing when the crunch time comes. As a result, sin leads us into failing ourselves miserably. (Everyone can testify to this fact.) Sin corrupts and perverts our communication internally and externally, which causes multiple layers of doubt, mistrust, accusations, and evil suspicions—to enter into even our most sacred relationships. Sin leads us into every kind of failure with self, with others, and with God.
  2. Sin fails us corporately. Sin destroys our relationships with everyone we know and love. Sin also poisons all future potential relationships as well. As such, Sin destroys everyone around us, even when we don’t intend our sin to hurt or harm anybody else. Sin does so by its own selfish nature and the consequences it brings into every relationship. (See Achan’s Story in the “Valley of Trouble”—Joshua Chapter 7.) Sin destroys all our relationships, by sowing little seeds of destruction, like little time bombs ticking, into every area of our relationships, at different levels, all ticking at different cycles of depreciation. When we sow destruction in and amongst one another (consciously, and subconsciously), we also block the true work of God in our midst.

    We blind ourselves to what God wants done, and what God originally intended to do. Then, we blame God for all the problems we are suffering from due to our own ignorance, and the consequences of our rebellion. Every time we sin we break our agreement with God, and make agreements with the Devil.  We do all this simultaneously, without hardly batting an eye lash. We join forces with the Devil. We lie, cheat, steal, defraud, sow doubt and fear, spread gossip and slander, and threaten to manipulate others to get our way, then we blame God for the Evil consequences of our sin ripping our lives apart—destroying our marriages, our families, our communities, our working relationships, our business relationships, our parent child relationships, our national and international relationships—all because we love our sin—and refuse to break our agreements with the devil. We refuse to stop building our lives upon Satan’s wicked foundation of lying and deceit. And we become comfortable in a place of rebellion towards God (that’s a very scary place to be). As a result, we destroy (and assist in the destruction) of everyone we know, care about, and even say we love. This happens and continue to happen, due to our own ignorance, and hatred of the Truth, because we outright reject the truth in God’s Word about who we are, and deny the Truth about what we are doing. 
  3. Sin fails us and destroys our relationship with God for eternity. This is why God hates sin. God hates our sin because it destroys His Creation. And it destroys our relationship with Him. It destroys our relationship with His environment. It destroys, corrupts and defiles our love and understanding of true beauty, true purity, true goodness, true kindness, true compassion, and true forgiveness.Sin labels everything incorrectly, because every sin we enter into puts up blinders up to our own darkness, and our own decrepit deception. Every where you see destruction, you see the plan of sin at work. God came to destroy “the Works of the Devil” which are the works of sin, and yet we block his work, and join forces with his arch enemy. We can hardly get it any wrong-er than that. And then we are quick to blame God when the human feces hits the proverbial fan. 

Destroying the Devil’s Works

1 John 3:8 (KJV)
He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.
For this purpose the Son of God [has come] was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Now, God does not hate sin because He wants you to feel bad. It is not Gods will for you to feel no pleasure and have no fun at all. Quite the contrary. Satan didn’t create Sex, or True Fun, or Heavenly Adventure, or intense Heavenly Pleasure. God did. (Satan cannot create anything, he can only twist, corrupt, and pervert what Yahweh has already created.) It just so happens that God’s Pleasure, God’s Fun, God’s Adventure, and God’s Heavenly Majestic, Powerful Satisfaction, far outweighs and far outstrips any tiny, puny, little, itsie-bitsie, pleasure you could ever get from Satans lies. Satans minuscule empty and wretched sins of the flesh could never begin to compare to God’s Rich and Powerful, Everlasting and Ever Fruit Bearing Pleasures that endure forever and only improve with time. God’s pleasures empower whole generations: families, tribes, peoples, nations, and tongues, to enjoy His Majesty and Glory for All Eternity.

Psalms 16:11 (KJV)
Thou wilt shew [show] me the path of life:
in thy presence is fulness of joy
at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

Like a blade of grass being overshadowed by Mount Everest, so do God’s Eternal Holy Pleasures dramatically overshadow Satan’s pestilent, insipid, “flash in the pan,” feel good moments (chemical moments), that last only for seconds, and then they vanish, like a vapor for all eternity. (See the Mountain reference “The Mountain that fills the whole Earth” in Daniel 2)

God’s Pleasures are Built on a lifetime of satisfaction, and they endure and progress throughout all of Eternity. Satan’s pleasures leave men, women, and children feeling lowly, guilty, shameful, and sickly. His sins are at the root of all violence, all disease, all mental and emotional distress and illness. His sins cause plagues, STDs, World Wars, Civil Wars, Social and Political Rioting. His sins are behind Abortion, Stock Market crashes, economic and natural disasters, many which are judgments from God—see Sodom and Gomorrah. His sins are the foundation of every form of Death and evil pollution. 

Satan’s Lies keep his prisoners: perverted, twisted, wrong, defiled, and doing great harm to themselves and others. Their evil sins fill the empty spaces inside their heads with self-hatred and worse. They create gaps in our conscience where fears, doubts, and worries invade our secret places and cause nightmares. These invasions continue to grow and multiple during our entire lifetimes—growing more severe as the sins we commit grow more consistent, as their darkness and corruption progress. Our insecurities mount up. Our lies meant to defend us, work to accuse us. We know what we are doing is wrong. Our conscience tells us, but our carnal nature refuses to admit it.

Our own common sense won’t let us rest. Our personal neediness and depravity exposes us. Our darkness gravitates to superstition. It opens doors of occult dimensions–we look to aliens for answers. Anything but to the King of Heaven, when sin is our master.  All the while our minds never get the rest they need, the rest that God designed for us to enjoy–with a clean conscience. 

Some distract themselves with the latest fashions in clothes, cars, curtains, and kitchen cabinets. So some drink hard. Some smoke hard. Some yoga hard, and some gamble hard. Some work out hard, run hard, surf hard, ski hard, bike hard. Some involve their minds in politics, some in religion, some in sports teams (baseball, basketball, football, soccer, rugby, tennis, lacrosse, gymnastics, ping-pong, the Olympics). It doesn’t really matter as long as it works as a distraction from their own sin problem. 

Some hit porn hard, others hit romance novels, others use video games, bing TV watching, some dive into role playing games, some dive into music bands, shooting games, or try to saturate their time with chess games or any kind of hobby or activity that will offer them some measure of escape from their dark worlds of worry, doubt and fear of death. Our the enemy, the devil, will use whatever means possible to grab a hold on his followers, and to keep them away from God’s Word and God’s Kingdom. Actually, the enemy works hard 24/7/365 to keep his sinners occupied by anything that keeps them out of God’s Word and away from anything that might bring them genuine conviction, or learning about how to do the Will of the Father from the heart. 

Satan wants us chasing his rats in every direction but towards God (so he created the Bread and Circus human entertainment distraction system). Satan effectually uses all our mental, emotional, physical, and even spiritual distractions to keep us in bondage to all his influences. 

Thankfully, Yahweh sends His messengers into the dark places where the enemy rules. Just as the Father sent his son into our world to speak His message and rescue us. Our Father sends us into the dark places in other men’s worlds to share His message that will rescue them, that we may bring His message of Life to those living in the Shadow of Death. His Message of Light to those controlled by the darkness. 

How beautiful are the feet of those who carry with them, the Good News of Gospel of the Kingdom of God wherever they go.

Isaiah 61:1-3 (KJV)
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me;
because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek;
he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all that mourn;
3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion,
to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
that they might be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

A Glorified Bucket of Vomit

Now I have to testify and bear personal witness, that being able to share His message with the Lost, and being able to see the lights turning on inside of their House. Seeing the Life of God begin stirring in the soul of one who has been held captive to sin… Who enjoyed the pleasures of Sin for a season, but who has come to realize that their sin, is really just a glorified (and often expensive) Bucket of Vomit… To see the transformation from an addiction to Vomit to a Glorious Love of Living in God’s Light… 

To see these changes being made … To see many addicted souls set free. To see men being nurtured on the pure pleasure of Freedom and Light … To see Lust and Greed replaced by Joy and Peace … This is a high, that no chemical substance on earth, no drug, no drink, no weed, no smoke could ever replicate. 

This Joy begins in the moment of repentance (that change of mind, which results in a change of direction) and grows and grows for all eternity. This Joy becomes a Mighty Mountain that will never be shaken (Again, see Daniel 2). It becomes a powerful rushing River that will never run dry. Defeating the Devil and all of his schemes is actually quite rewarding. Destroying the Enemy’s works, first in your own life and then seeing them destroyed in the lives of loved ones around is like nothing else on earth. Winning a chess game, a football game, a tennis match, a surfing championship, even an Olympic Medal–cannot touch a candle to the beauty, majesty, and Glory of Defeating the Devil, and seeing a soul rescued from darkness to light.

Having the great privilege and honor of being a part of  building His Heavenly Kingdom here on Earth, and experiencing these precious moments or reward that will last for eternity is a very high and precious great treasure. For all who have shared it–you know what I am talking about..

Matthew 4:17 (KJV)
From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

So…How hard is it to receive Gods Message? Not hard at all, once the ears become unstopped. Once the eyes are opened to do His Will. Of course this will never really happen when a mans heart and mind are being bombarded with lies, and the deceitfulness of sin and all the distractions imbedded in our worldly culture and society. What a good sinner needs is a powerful set of words that will grab his attention and force his will to hear and acknowledge–the law of God. (more on that later.) What we need are good reasons to repent. 

We need to change our source of information. We need to block out the voice of the enemy and begin listening to the Voice of the Good Shepherd. We need to break all our agreements with the Devil, and enter into a totally New Covenant with the Son of God. This has all been provided for in the Death and Resurrection of the Holy One of God. 

Today, even now we can begin to Hear His Voice. And hearing it we can obey. By obeying Him, we will be building our lives on a foundation that will never rock, roll or be shaken, even though the entire earth systems come tumbling down—which they will. That is a guarantee. But those who seek Him will find Him. Those who ask for Him shall receive Him, and they shall rule with Him. Satan’s Kingdom is falling even as we speak. 

Today is the Day of Salvation. And we get to choose whom we will serve. Yeshua’s Kingdom will bring us intoHis  Light and Eternal Life. Satan’s kingdom? Into Death, and Eternal Damnation. Which one we choose will be clearly evident by how we behave and how we live, and by whose voice we choose to listen to, follow, and obey. “My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me.” John 10:27

John 8:51 (ESV)
“Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.

Some Concluding Words:

The devil has deceived many to believe, and to even boldly say that, God hates pleasure. And God doesn’t want you to be happy, because He wants to take away your pleasures in Sinning. Of course, this seems right to our sinful corrupted minds and carnal nature. And we know and can testify that the sinful pleasures He wants to take away from us do feel good. They are enjoyable, even exciting and fun for a season. Therefore, we may tend to agree with Satan. We might even say, Yes, God must be a big meany because He just doesn’t want me to have any fun. So if I turn to God I will have to stop having fun. These are the lying thoughts and accusations the evil one uses to convince every sinner to keep away from God’s Heavenly Pleasures. His Heavenly Power. His Heavenly Authority. His Heavenly Eternal Virtue.  And His Powerful Word. So that sinners will be bound to Satan’s puny, decrepit, dark, twisted, unsatisfying, extremely temporary and extremely limited pleasures that will keep us in bondage and never satisfy the real needs of our soul, keeping us in slavery to his deadly sin.

Proverbs 26:11 (KJV)
As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.

More on this in a future post 

Concluding Prayer & Hope:

May you find your way out of Satan’s Lies, Traps, Tricks, Schemes, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Manipulations so that you can enter cleanly into the Powerful Freedom of Living and Loving in the Holy, Beautiful, Reliable, and incredibly Majestic Kingdom of God.

Shalom,

Brother Thomas

Isaiah 52:7 (NIV)
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”